GEMS FROM THE
VISION AND PRACTICE
BEACH 10: HINDUISM FOR THE
NEXT GENERATION
Wave 3: Basics of Hindu Religious Worship : Page
4
Bhakti means devotion, but it actually connotes
an attitude of intense devotion. In practice it gets exhibited in several ways.
One of the most common and most recommended by the scriptures is that of reciting
God’s names. There are several purposes in such a
recitation: to purify oneself; to give
expression to one’s bhakti; to progress on the upward
path of spiritual evolution; to obtain the Grace of God for a specific material
purpose; to obtain God’s Grace for the ultimate Salvation.
For
such purposes of recitation of God’s names and glories there are innumerable
poems of praise (stotras)
in the secondary scriptural literature. The Vedas are the primary scriptures. All the
others like the Ramayana, written by Valmiki, the
Mahabharata, written by Vyasa and the 18 purANas and their
associates all written by Vyasa are among the
secondary scriptures. These poems of
praise and their recitations constitute one more of the distinguishing features
of Hinduism.
The
practice of recitation of these stotras can be
recognized to be the one vibrant chord that runs through the
cultural milieu of Hindu
Go
to Towering Giants of
Spirituality
They
preached and practised the nAma-sankIrtana (= reciting of
God’s names) method of obtaining God’s Grace, in preference to the much misused
and misinterpreted ritualistic tradition handed down by the Vedic age. The enormous
amount of devotional literature that exists in India, both in Sanskrit and
in Tamil -- which are the two most
ancient languages --, but also in the other major languages of the country, has
been inspired by hundreds of saints, musicians,
mystics and great poets all over India, almost without a break through this
period.
Some
of these poems of praise in the scriptural literature are litanies of one
hundred or one thousand names of God. These are full of flowing
poetry, alliteration, rhythm and rich philosophical content. The names listed
are those of God, extolling His majesty and splendour,
omnipresence and omniscience, transcendence and immanence and His exploits in
His different manifestations. To repeat these names is to enjoy the ecstasy of
divine communion. In addition to these recitations, for those who are not
educated in these, there are innumerable bhajans
– streamlined repetitions of God’s names, which can be sung in chorus to set
beats. These again were popularised by those great
devotees of the renaissance period. The very popular hare krishna
bhajan sung
by those involved in the International
The fundamental belief of Hinduism being the divinity of
man,
the
divine instincts that are latent in oneself are touched by these bhajans and
recitations
and in
due time will conquer the baser instincts
which are
themselves only the consequences of one’s vAsanAs
acquired in this and all previous lives.
The
obtaining of God’s Grace is the much-sought-after goal
of bhakti. There arfe two
views in Hinduism regarding the methodology for obtaining the Grace of God.
One
view which is called the monkey theory
(markaTa nyAya) says
that the devotee has to make enough efforts by himself for God to descend to
him, just as the baby monkey has to cling to its mother of its own for being
carried along.
On
the other hand, the other viewpoint, which is called the
cat theory (mArjAra nyAya)
says that the devotee does not have to make any effort because God Himself will
take care of him and do the needful. This is like the Presbyterian viewpoint in
Christianity. The cat theory implies a total surrender.
The weight of scriptural authority leans towards this theory. This is in fact a
surrender wherein the devotee surrenders even his mind to the Lord. He has no
mind of his own thereafter. One is reminded a nineteenth century Christian
hymn:
Oh Lord, take my will and
make it thine;
It shall no longer be mine.
Take my heart, it is thine own;
It shall be thy royal
throne.
This
is the Bhakti Yoga of Hinduism.
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